One more quick addition:

It just occurred to me that program planning models, as far as I know, are missing the element of time. They describe program planning itself as a product, not as a process. We need a model that, like Picasso's "Nude Descending a Staircase", shows an ever-evolving, emergent planning process. When we start a program planning process from scratch, we have our preconceived ideas and a bit of information, but not much more. As we begin to work with various components and see how the various "ingredients" we have foraged from the landscape fit together, and new ones begin to reveal themselves, we begin to have ideas about what needs to happen next. We learn, we integrate, we apply, we fail or succeed, and we then continue on our path of foraging and assembling.

I think what I'll do is look at the various components of program planning as we tend to identify them today (needs assessment, for example, seems critical in a new way of doing things) and look at them from a technical-rational perspective, a practical perspective, a political perspective, but then also from an emergent/connected perspective. We'll see what that does!

I'm beginning to see how my science fair project in grade 8 (Time and Space), and my interest in emergence/chaos theory etc, what I learn from wilderness canoeing, and my newfound interest in program planning fits together. :) And too bad I now have to admit publicly what a nerd I am.